the Coleoptera of the Maltese Islands. 387 
then found on melon and cucumber plants. Longitarsus, 
Aphthona, Phyllotreta, Spheroderma, Demetrias atricapillus, 
and many Apions may thus be obtained. 
In autumn, besides stone-turning and looking in the 
débris washed down by rains, a ready way to obtain some 
good species is by beating or shaking on the tray the 
bundles of Znwla and other plants which are bound together 
to dry, and left by the country people on the ground in 
fields or rocky places. 
The distribution of species is very irregular; some of 
the most interesting and special forms are quite common, 
others have a very limited area of distribution, being local 
and very rare. Thus there is no difficulty in getting at 
the proper season—Dasytiscus melitensis, Tentyria lxvi- 
gata, v. leachi, Asida melitana, Phylax melitensis, while 
Lemosthenes yreicorms, Bruchus duvali, Thylacites beloni are 
harder to obtain, and Hurynebria complanata, Zuphium 
olens, Drypta distincta, Calosoma madere, Anthaxia 
umbellatarum, Saperda punctata, Callidiwm violacewm, 
Lhopalopus clavipes have been found only in single 
specimens. 
Very little information has been published about the 
Maltese Coleoptera. 
George Waring, in his “ Letters from Malta and Sicily” 
(1843), refers to a collection of beetles which in 1833 
was being made in Malta by Dr. Leach, but it appears 
that unfortunately nothing was ever published about it. 
In 1857 Prof. Gavino Gulia delivered a course of ento- 
mological lectures at St. Antonio, which were published in 
1858; the determination of all species mentioned, however, 
is so doubtful, to say the least, that the list of species 
cannot be taken into any account. 
One of us contributed to “ The Mediterranean Naturalist,” 
in 1893, an article on “The Common Beetles of the 
Maltese Islands,” in which mention is made of about 135 
species. 
The only other published information which we know 
of is scattered through various entomological works, and 
consists mainly of the descriptions of several endemic 
species. 
Far from pretending that the following is a complete 
list of Maltese beetles, we are sure that further researches 
and studies will brmg out more species, especially among 
the Micro-Coleoptera; we believe, however, that we may 
